Outcome
by kneipho
Summary: Another oldie. Chakotay considers the impact of restoring Janeway's memory and returning her to Voyager while hiding from the authorites on Quarra. UPDATE: 1 "R" found and removed. Thank you, Glasskey!


Disclaimer: _Star Trek _and all of its subsequent incarnations, (including _Voyager) _are sole property of CBS Corporation and Paramount Pictures. No characters belong to me. No profit made. No harm intended.

Title: Outcome ("A Workforce" Episode Addition)

Author: kneipho  
"R" Checker, Unbeknownst : Thank you, Glasskey!  
Rating: T (PG-13)  
Fandom: VOY  
Character/Pairing Codes: J,C, references to J/Ja

Spoilers: "Resolutions", "Workforce"

Notes: Written for the _Here an R, there an R, Everywhere an R Contest_. (The letter "R" must not appear in the body of the story - introduction and title excluded. If you find one, after the title, let me know. :) ) I made some changes to this story well after the eppie "Workforce" aired, for the cannon lover in my family.

Chakotay considers the impact of restoring Janeway's memory and returning her to _Voyager_ while hiding from the authorites on Quarra.

* * *

Acting Command Log, Chakotay:

Ensign Kim, Neelix and I have successfully finished an extended away mission, but upon docking the shuttle in Bay 2, have found the ship poisoned, and devoid of it's usual inhabitants.

Two weeks ago, this vessel made contact with a intentionally fashioned anomaly which caused massive system declination and induced a ship wide climate hostile to all humanoid life. Obliged to abandon ship and leaving only the EMCH at the helm, the captain and ship's populous escaped to safety on an abutting M-class planet. Once the escape pods landed, instead of finding safety, the full assemblage was abducted and somehow made to indulge in 'mental wipes'. They have now all begun new lives. They exist as employees at some kind of fuel mill - all association of a past in space, eliminated.

My team and I have managed to devise a plan to emancipate them, but as unknowing intellectual molestees, many seem acutely satisfied living as automatons. I doubt anyone will join us willingly. We intend to nab and de -empanel the whole band, but it won't be easy. Hopelessly out manned, the men and I feel anxious about the mission's possible outcome.

Janeway had said she would come back soon. Even though he had been publicly labeled a deadly thug, when she found him in the vacant dwelling, she tended to his welts and damaged bones. It was a good sign. He knew his tale of space voyaging must seem fantastic, but he also thought she might actually be beginning to believe him.

B'Elanna hadn't known him. Wild with panic, she had fought him until she was beamed away. He had spooked, then kidnapped an excitable young woman heavy with child. The scene in total, ugly; an abomidable incident, leaving him feeling like some kind of ignominious beast. Chakotay's head pounded. He didn't want to think about B'Elanna.

He closed his eyes, attempting to sleep, his thoughts floating back to Janeway, back to lunch that day in the convenience lot at the mill...

It had been a shock initially, seeing the captain like that, so happy. In all time he had acted as XO, he had not seen his commanding executive so unimpeded by the bonds of accountability. The culpability she felt because the ship and its people had been lost in an unknown galaxy had etched itself into tiny lines on the woman's face. As each day went by, it continued to augment itself bit by bit, fashioning new notations - many beneath the skin.

Nothing but joy and the attentions of a tall man standing to the left bound the individual Chakotay beheld as he stood on the fuel plant lot. Donned in a shapeless, but sensible gown, no bands of disquiet spoiled any section of that smiling, newly smoothed, face.

_The woman extended up on tiptoes to kiss the man. The man smiled, saying something intelligible, the look on his handsome face teasing, openly seductive. The woman looked up at the man, mouth set, swatting his chest, an act of hostility. _

_Blue eyes, nonetheless, cast back a look filled only with dedication and jubilance. _

The quondam Maquis shook himself, unable to sleep. "You could be managing this place if you wanted." he had said, not too long ago, his voice coaxing as she bent to heal his beaten body in the abandoned, soundless gloom. He had hoped to jog the cells in his captain' s head, hoped to awake some sense of command in the mind of the being that once had been his main confidant.

"Why would I want to do that?" she had asked him then, tone light.

She had slipped out of the dwelling subsequently, leaving the comment to whip about the tissues of his dull mental substance. It duplicated itself, multiplying in echo.

_Why would I want to do that?" _

_Why would I want to do that?" _

_Why would I want to do that?" _

Chakotay massaged his aching temples. Old images he had tucked away in the defensive folds of his own concealed thoughts kicked loose. Fuzzy holoshots taken by his affections half a decade ago - when they lived alone on an uninhabited planet. His captain had been almost happy, then.

_The wind danced gaily along the wide-fuel plant lot. The woman chatted with the man. A single capable, masculine hand stationed possessively on the feminine swell of a shapely back. _

_The woman laughed, face luminous, announcing to all that she was plainly, unashamedly in love._

That lobotomized identity would not leave the fellow she idolized so openly. She was not his captain - not his companion. Not his anything.

Chakotay acknowledged his duty . . . and suddenly hated it.

Would she be satisfied - old actuality again in place, to be Captain Janeway the competent, yet isolated militant official? How changed would she be once she put the pieces of command again immovably in place? He closed his eyes, again, this time imagining unessential pleats developing on a face full of joy. The duplication of a statement began echoing in his head anew.

_Why would I want to do that?" _

_Why would I want to do that?" _

_Why would I want to do that?" _

* * *

Outcome, © kneipho, 2001, 2008


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